All This Time
by Gleefanx10
Summary: "Quinn let down her shoulders, defeated, her chin trembling for she just confessed to the person she both hated and loved the most her deepest and darkest secret. 'After all this time' Rachel spoke up. Quinn looked down at her, her eyes pained. She nodded." My vision for the Glee series finale. Faberry.


_Hello everyone. This is my interpretation of how I envision the series finale of Glee. Enjoy :)_

* * *

The wind breezed, making little ripples in the water, pushing the sailboats along the surface. The sun shone down, hundreds of people took advantage of the nice early spring weather and enjoyed a day in central park. Rachel took a long, breathy, uneasy sigh. One of those sighs that you make when you are desperately trying not to cry. It had been a hard week. No, scratch that, it had been a hard month.

No, it had been a hard year.

Rachel was struggling; financially and physically. She was working a double-shift at the diner, including a side job as a receptionist for a dentist's office. Her arms were sore and covered in bruises (she wasn't the most graceful waitress) and the deep, dark circles that were painted underneath her eyes were painfully displayed.

Funny Girl had been her big break. During that glorious year, Rachel embodied and fully embraced Fanny Brice, performing in front of immense crowds every week on an actual Broadway stage and she loved every second of it. It was her most precious dream and it had actually come true. Of course, all dreams come to an end at some point. Sure, she was incredibly talented and people loved her as Fanny, but she, as they say in the entertainment industry, peaked too early.

Life was tolerable, but Rachel was nowhere near happy. In fact, she was the loneliest she had ever been. She no longer lived with Kurt and Santana. After Blaine graduated and got into NYADA, him and Kurt quickly moved in together, with Santana and Dani getting their own apartment soon after. Now it was just her and her voice in a place that was once full of many other voices cooped up in the old apartment. Of course she would still meet up with her friends from time to time, but Rachel never wanted to impose on their relationships.

She came here often. It was her favorite spot in all of New York City. She would come here mostly to think, relax, or get some fresh air. She loved looking at the trees. That was the thing she missed the most about Lima; the trees, the openness.

But mostly recently she had come here for advice. To ask _him _advice. She'd run her hands along the side and ask him what to do; should she move back home, was she really meant to be a star, was she really all that special? Anything. Every time she came here she couldn't help but talk to him. After all, it was their bridge. His death had rocked her world, sending her spiraling down into a place she never knew existed. Broadway was her only savior, and now it was gone.

It had been almost two years now since she heard the news. Of course she would always love him and he'd always be there in her heart, but she had learned to move on. That didn't stop her from missing him though.

"Finn…I don't know if I can do this anymore," Rachel ran a hand through her hair, blowing out another sigh, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "My life isn't how I thought it'd turn out. I'm supposed to be on Broadway. I'm supposed to be performing and singing and winning Tony's. I don't understand. Was Funny Girl just a fluke? Did they cast me on a whim or, or as some experiment? Have I gone my whole life just _claiming _to be some star when I'm just as special as everyone else?"

"Never."

Rachel turned around, startled. She knew that voice. It belonged to someone she hadn't seen in years. And someone she hadn't realized she missed.

"Quinn?"

And there she stood, no more than thirty feet away. Quinn Fabray had always been the definition of perfection, but she Rachel had never seen her so beautiful. Her previously short hair and grown back to its infamous high-pony bearing length, she was as thin as always, and her green eyes shone even from a distance. And she was slowly making her way over to Rachel.

Quinn's eyes were big and intense and she shook her head with every small step. "No, Rachel. You've never _not _be a star."

Rachel looked at the blonde exasperated, "Quinn, what on earth are you doing here? I haven't seen you since you and Santana visited me back a couple years. How did you know where I was?"

"I figured you'd be here," she stated, almost to the brunette.

Rachel raised an eyebrow, "Oh? How do you know me so well when we barely talk anymore?"

"I can infer."

She was three steps away.

"Quinn," Rachel repeated, this time with sincere curiosity, "why are you here?" Quinn and Rachel had never been on the best terms in the past, only recently becoming…_acquaintances _(friends wasn't really the right word) and Quinn's presence was unusual at best. Why had she sought her out?

"There's something I need to tell you Rachel. It's something I've needed to tell you for a while, but I've never had the strength to. And I still don't, but I know that if I don't tell you now, then I might never tell you. And that is why I've come all the way out from New Haven to find you and finally get this off my chest and be free."

Rachel had never seen Quinn like this. Now that the blonde was standing at almost eye level, she could see past her angelic glow and really see _her_. She bore no makeup on her face, her hair awry in some places and she looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. She had her very own pair of dark circles painted underneath her eyes to match.

Rachel was concerned at Quinn's uncharacteristically disheveled appearance. "Quinn –"

"No, Rachel, just listen for a second, please? I need to say this." Quinn interrupted.

Rachel could only nod.

Quinn took a shaky breath, as if she didn't quite know how to start. Her hands were shaking, but she never took her eyes off of Rachel.

"Did you know that I came to see you in Funny girl every other weekend?"

Rachel titled her head in confusion. That wasn't what she was expecting to hear.

"I would get all my school work done ahead the previous weekend so that I was able to come down and see you perform. Do you know why?" Quinn asked.

Rachel shook her head.

Quinn shifted her weight nervously. "It's because there has always been something about you Rachel, something that just…pulls me toward you. All the way back in high school, the early days where you were the last person that I wanted to see every morning, it was there, deep inside me, nagging, and I could never put my finger on it."

Quinn bit her lip, the struggle visible on her face. "Every corner I turned, there you were. You were always popping up everywhere and each time you came my way, that nagging would return. And return and return and return until it never left. And I _hated _you for it. The whole thing with Puck and Finn and freaking glee club, I couldn't understand why you couldn't just leave me alone. And so I thought if I tormented you, the nagging would stop and I could move on with my life, but it never did.

But you want to know something funny? I've always known. I've _always_ known! But I was so wrapped up in my own superficial shit to acknowledge any of it and it almost ruined my life. I held it in and I watched as I let you love him. I sat idle by as you almost married him, and it _killed _me. You want to know something else Rachel? The first thing I thought about when I woke up in the hospital after the car accident wasn't if I was dead or if I was okay, but if you had married him or not."

Rachel stared up at her incredulously. She didn't understand what she was saying, she didn't understand where any of this was coming from.

Tears were starting to form in Quinn's eyes, but she didn't falter. She continued, never breaking eye contact.

"And I thought surely that when you went off to New York and I left for Yale that the distance would fix everything and that all those years of turmoil would be past me. But that wasn't the case. There wasn't a day that didn't think of you and it scared me. It scared me, because for forever, my life had been decided for me. What I would wear, who I would talk to, and who I would date. That all changed the minute I met you and everything fell to pieces. I got pregnant, kicked out of my house, lost my boyfriends, lost my daughter, and became temporarily paralyzed. I went after guys like Finn and Puck because those were the guys I was taught to love. And then you happened and you sang a freaking curveball at me and suddenly it was like everything I ever knew flew out that window. "

Quinn was crying now, and Rachel cried along with her. She was starting to understand.

She tucked the blonde strands that blew in the wind behind her ear. "It freaks me out because the more I look back, the more I see. I realize now why Puck and I never worked out. I realize now why I never was able to look at Finn the way you looked him, and it was because I was too busy looking that way at you."

Rachel gazed up at her, two tears falling from each eye, "Quinn."

"So I got on a train this morning before I could stop myself. I knew I'd find you here because it's _your_ spot and I know that it will always probably be Finn for you, but I needed to stop living this lie that has ripped me apart since the first time I laid eyes on you and felt that instant nagging."

Breath hitched and palms sweating, Rachel watched as pools of sea foam green dug right into her and she had never felt her heart pound harder.

"I had to come to tell you right here, right now, that I am hopelessly, painfully, and uncontrollably in love with you. _I love you, _Rachel Berry. I always have, and I don't think I will ever be able to stop loving you. You enthrall me, and inspire me, and actually make me feel human. You've showed me that I don't need to be perfect, anything is possible and that you shouldn't be afraid to go after your dreams, no matter the circumstances and I will always thank you for that. I admire your drive and your passion and your talent. Your voice Rachel is the most precious thing ever heard and you deserve to be recognized for it. You are the most beautiful girl I've ever laid my eyes on and it kills me when you don't believe it. I just love you…"

Quinn let down her shoulders, defeated, her chin trembling for she just confessed to the person she both hated and loved the most her deepest and darkest secret.

"After all this time?" Rachel spoke up.

Quinn looked down at her, her eyes pained. She nodded.

Rachel couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that Quinn Fabray was standing in front of her, and she couldn't believe what she had just heard. She couldn't believe the feelings bubbling up inside of her. But that didn't stop her from taking action.

Rachel reached out her hands, grabbing Quinn's face and crashing her lips against her own. Quinn locked up, startled and confused but feelings took precedent and she melted right into the kiss. Her heart errupted, years of bottled feelings exploding, oozing out of her into the kiss, the kiss she very well dreamed about but never thought she would ever get. But again, all dreams come to an end eventually, and the two broke apart. Brown and green, that was all that was left.

"But Rachel, I don't understand. Wh-what about Finn? I thought he was the love of your life." Quinn stammered, still slightly high from their kiss."

"Quinn, there's no doubt that I loved Finn. He was my first love and while he and I felt like forever, he's gone. And I'd do _anything_ to bring him back, but I can't. No one can." Rachel reasoned.

Quinn still shook her head in disbelief, "But what about all the years of torture and slushies and name calling and sabotaging?"

"None of that matters to me anymore. Weren't you the one who said that you can't change your past, but you can let go and start you future?" Rachel asked, smirking.

Quinn let out a small laugh, wiping her wet eyes. "There you go again, always seeing the best in everyone. It's part of why I love you."

Rachel reached out and grasped her hand, squeezing it tight.

Quinn looked at her longingly. "Take a chance on me, Rachel."

Rachel found herself nodding, "Okay." She leaned in closer and closer and ultimately sealed the gap with her lips.

* * *

They say that love often springs from hate. They also say that love is blind. The universe has many ways of always making sure true love finds itself. In their case, it took a little longer than the universe anticipated. But Quinn and Rachel had found each other eventually. They were each other's rock. Quinn supported Rachel into getting back into the Broadway scene, this time being more successful than the first. And Rachel was right by Quinn's side when she reunited with Beth, holding her hand when the girl hadn't called her mommy. They depended on each other and together, they weren't so lonely. Rachel found herself falling in love, and Quinn found herself falling even more in love, if that was even possible. Quinn and Rachel were meant to be together, and the universe prevailed. Because when it comes down to it, all you need is love. It's that simple.

_Fin._


End file.
